


Cloak and Dagger

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Gen Work, Road Trips, Stephen is alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 05:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4251156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cutter and Sarah finally have the matrix at the stage where it can be tested in the field and with Stephen's death still hanging over them an outing away from the ARC seems like a great idea. But the matrix has more than one surprise for its creator.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Monday, 10am**

“What is it supposed to do, exactly?” Jenny asked.

“Solve all our problems.”

Lester snorted from behind Jenny and made her jump; she hadn't heard him come in.

“You'll excuse me Professor, if I don't just take your word for it.”

Cutter ran a hand through his hair, which had already been sticking up in all directions.

“With this matrix I'll be able to not only tell when anomalies have opened, but when they'll open in the future. We'll be able to predict exactly when they'll appear, and get there before they do. Think of the lives we'll be able to save. The...”

“Yes, yes, I get the point,” Lester said, interrupting Cutter before he got started on one of his lectures. They could all definitely do without that kind of headache so early in the morning.

“Coupled with the Anomaly Detection Device this could be a major breakthrough for us,” Jenny said. “We'll have the sort of edge over the anomalies that Helen has.”

Lester seemed a little more interested now. “Really?”

Jenny nodded.

“Than what are you talking to me for, get on with it.” He then moved off back to wherever he'd originally been going.

Jenny shook her head. “Honestly, that man.”

“Aye,” Cutter agreed, turning back to the matrix. “How he can't see what's going on here...” He started pushing and prodding at a couple of pieces, mind already drifting back to his work.

Jenny watched him for a moment, telling herself that she was really interested in learning how to follow the matrix's predictions, and not the curve of Cutter's arse every time he leaned over.

“Liking what you see?” Abby asked as she came in.

“I'm going to start handing out bells,” Jenny said, catching her breath as Abby startled her. Abby just laughed.

“You're looking very chipper for a Monday morning,” Jenny observed.

Abby shrugged. “I've just been visiting Monty.”

Jenny raised an eyebrow. “Monty?”

“The Mammoth.” Abby grinned. “He even has a nameplate on his door now.”

Jenny laughed. “Was that your idea, or Connor's?”

“Danny's, actually. He said every one needed to feel like they belonged, even woolly mammoths.”

Jenny didn't know how to respond to that. Danny Quinn was definitely an enigma.

“Lunch, later?” Abby asked.

Jenny nodded and waved Abby on her way. Throughout their conversation Cutter had been paying no more attention to them than if they'd been bees collecting pollen. Even now he was scribbling notes onto a whiteboard that Sarah had set up, and talking to himself, which was a new development and not one that Jenny particularly cared for. There was a very thin line between dedication and obsession, and it was even thinner where Cutter was concerned.

“You won't be working through lunch again, will you?” Jenny asked. Cutter either didn't hear or didn't think she was worth a reply. Jenny wasn't sure which one she preferred.

She made a face at Cutter's back and then went back to her own office. Cutter was a grown man; if he wanted to play with sticks all day then that was his prerogative. It _was_ important, she hadn't lied about that. But...but she couldn’t help think that Helen was more involved with this obsession than Cutter was ever going to let on.

“Prof getting to you?” Danny asked.

Jenny looked up and blinked a few times. Judging by her watch, she'd been staring at the same email for the last ten minutes.

“No,” Jenny said.

Danny moved around her desk and peered at her emails over her shoulder. She half-heartedly tried to push him out of the way.

“Toilets on floor 5 are backed up and sludge is pouring out of the bathroom door. Sounds lovely.”

“Yes, it is. What do you want, Danny?”

Danny perched on her desk, shifting and crumpling paperwork underneath him as he did so.

“Can't a guy just come and see a gal? Does there have to be an ulterior motive?”

Jenny locked her computer terminal and pushed Danny off her desk.

“What?” she asked.

Danny looked like he was going to prevaricate some more, but then decided against it. “It's about Cutter's little project.”

“What about it?”

“Do you think it will work?”

Jenny frowned, it hadn't been the question she was expecting. Though, much like the Spanish Inquisition, Danny was never quite what she was expecting.

“Of course.”

“Okay,” Danny smiled. “Now say it with some conviction.”

Jenny hesitated. Did she really believe that Cutter could do this – solve their problem's, predict anomalies, even go back and fix...

“Jenny?” Danny asked. He put his hand on her shoulder as she felt her face drop. What if all this was because Cutter wanted to fix his past, wanted to fix _her._ Wanted Claudia Brown back.

Jenny shook her head. “I don't know. It could save a lot of lives.”

Danny nodded. “Or it could destroy the world.”

“Well, there is that.”

**Tuesday**

The fact that there hadn't been an anomaly alert for three days was both a pleasant change, and highly worrisome. It set everybody on edge. Danny and Becker were training harder than ever. Well, Becker was training his men and Danny was sitting on the sidelines, making what he termed “helpful comments”. Connor was tinkering with the ADD like a man possessed, Abby was spending all her time with the animals, Lester was dealing with something at the Ministry of Defence that he wouldn't talk about and Sarah and Cutter were moving bits of plastic around with a slightly terrifying focus.

Jenny was sat in a corner, watching them. She realised on some level that this wasn't healthy, but she couldn't seem to drag herself away. Most of what Cutter and Sarah was saying went over her head, but she did recognise a Eureka moment when she saw it.

“Yes!” Sarah shouted, pumping the air and looking at Cutter for confirmation. Cutter grinned and lifted Sarah up, twirling her around as she laughed. Jenny wished she had a camera handy, and made a mental note to get Connor to take this moment off the CCTV cameras for the Christmas party.

“What is it?” Jenny asked, smiling in a shocked kind of way as Cutter planted a kiss on her cheek.

“We've done it,” Cutter said. “We've only gone and done it!”

“Cracked it, we've cracked it,” Sarah was saying over Cutter. “We can predict them.”

Jenny reacted the way she was supposed to, smiling and telling them that to be sure they'd need to run some tests, but deep down she only felt numb.

* * * * **

For reasons that Jenny couldn’t quite fathom, Cutter had chosen Sherwood Forest for their test of the matrix. There were mutterings about “best site in unpopulated area” and “fully functioning test procedure” and “Robin Hood was cool” (from Connor) but Jenny had decided that not asking too many detailed questions was the better part of valour.

Besides, the team could do with a field trip, a little distance from the ARC. A little distance from their grief.

Stephen's loss was still ever present, and the addition of Captain Becker hadn't exactly smoothed things over, although he was doing his best. Not that you'd know by Cutter's attitude though, he hadn't uttered a single word about Stephen since the funeral and barely addressed Becker at all. He'd just exchanged one obsession for another, which she supposed summed up Cutter's life pretty well. She wondered sometimes how Stephen had ever managed to cope with him. Then she thought of Helen again, the ever present spectre in all their lives. Stephen's obsession, Cutter's obsession, she supposed they all bled into one another.

“Penny for them?” Danny asked. He pressed a warm hand to her leg and squeezed.

“Nothing,” she said. “Nothing important.” She picked up Danny's hand and moved it from her leg. “We nearly there yet?”

“Another ten minutes,” Becker answered. He was driving and had been completely silent the whole way down. Cutter had been alternating between scribbling in his notebook and talking to Sarah on the phone as she followed in the other car, completely ignoring everybody else.

“And the anomaly's supposed to open...?” Danny asked.

“One hour,” Cutter said.

“Oooh, look, he speaks!” Danny crowed.

Cutter opened his mouth but Jenny interrupted. “Thank you, children. Ten more minutes and then we can all stretch our legs.”

Cutter huffed and sank back down into his seat. Danny resumed a game of solitaire on his phone.

Jenny tried, and failed, to stifle the vague sense of panic in her chest.

* * * * * *

The anomaly didn't open. Cutter stubbornly refused to believe that his calculations were at fault and insisted that they stayed until the sky darkened and even he had to acknowledge that they couldn't spend all night in the forest. Thankfully Jenny had already considered this possibility, and had hotel rooms booked in Nottingham.

“We can start again in the morning,” Jenny told Cutter. She was aware that her voice didn't sound all that confident about the prospect, but she was tired and cold and fed up of anomalies and frankly, of Cutter as well. He wisely didn’t decide to argue with her.

Jenny found herself sat at the hotel bar, sipping a glass of wine and wondering what sort of mood Cutter was going to be in when he joined her.

The others had all disappeared to their own rooms on arrival, grateful no doubt not to be near Cutter or Sarah's disappointment. She sighed, took another sip of her drink and wished she wasn't so sensible that getting completely drunk was never on the cards. Just as she set it down, her eyes drifted to the mirror above the bar and she stood up automatically as she recognised the reflected figure in front of her.

“No, it can't be,” Jenny muttered.

She turned around quickly but the bar had suddenly become quite crowded and she couldn't make out the figure. Certain though that she hadn't imagined it she hurriedly grabbed her bag and scurried out of the bar.

“Jenny? What's going on?” Becker asked, appearing as if from nowhere. She wondered for a strange fleeting second if he'd been spying on her.

“Stephen,” Jenny said. “I just saw Stephen.”

Becker gave her a quick assessing glance, and then nodded. “I'll check the perimeter.” He was gone before she could say everything she felt, but the tremendous relief at not having to explain herself was so overwhelming she wasn't sure what she would have said anyway.

Jenny headed towards the reception and fumbled for her phone. She was certain she had a few photos of the whole team on there.

“Excuse me,” she asked the receptionist, “I'm meeting a friend and he's not picking up his phone. Have you seen this man come in yet?”

“Oh yes, Mr Buckland? I thought I saw him a moment ago. Would you like me to try his room for you?”

“His room? Oh, of course, I was supposed to meet him at his room.” She pretended to fumble with her bag. “Where did I write down his room number?”

“378,” the receptionist said with a helpful smile.

“Thank you, yes, of course.” She nodded at Becker as he appeared at her side. “Mr Buckland's been staying in Room 378.”

“Okay,” Becker said, “let's go see him.”

They nodded pleasantly towards the receptionist and then moved away, Becker steering Jenny from the lift to the stairs.

They hurried up two at a time, Jenny grateful she hadn't changed out of her walking boots and jeans.

“Did Lester fake Stephen’s death?” Becker asked her as they moved.

Jenny nearly lost her footing. “What? No, of course not.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure. If Stephen's death was faked...” she trailed off. If Stephen's death had been faked, she'd have been the one faking it. That was apparently answer enough for Becker.

“So our options are this is a different Stephen from a different time line, or Stephen from our time line who managed to save himself?”

Jenny tried to think of another option, but came up blank. She wasn't sure which would be the most helpful either, but clearly Stephen had known who she was, she'd seen the startled look of recognition seconds before he disappeared into the crowd. So he knew who she was, but not that she was going to be here, at this hotel. He had to presume that the rest of the team were here as well, and if he wanted to avoid them all then his only option was to leave.

“If he's gone, we at least might have a chance to go through his room, find some clues,” Becker said to her as he stopped at the top of the stairs on Stephen's floor.

“Right.”

Becker looked at her, and Jenny couldn’t decide whether he was surprised that she was okay with him breaking into a hotel room or assumed that she just hadn't realised that's what they were going to be doing.

“I'm pretty good at picking locks, if you need any help?”

Becker's mouth twitched, as close to a smile as she'd seen yet. “I’ve got this.”

Jenny kept an eye out whilst Becker used one of Connor's electronic gizmo’s to short the circuit in the card reader on the door and had it flashing green for them to enter in under a minute. She was pretty sure that wasn't what Connor had had in mind when he'd asked Becker to test it in the field, but she certainly wasn't complaining right now.

Becker insisted on going in first, gun drawn, but after a cursory glance around the room and the bathroom, he motioned it was safe for Jenny to enter.

“I'll search the bathroom,” Becker said. Jenny nodded and moved over to the bed which was made with military precision. There were papers strewn all over the desk though, so Jenny started flicking through them. Under a pile of maps she gave out a small gasp and pulled out the book she had found.

“Anything good?” Becker asked.

“I think it's Helen's notebook.”

“How the hell did Stephen get hold of that?”

Jenny shrugged. “I'm not sure we'll like the answer, whatever it is.” She hesitated for a moment, and then put the book into her bag. Becker didn't say anything, just moved over to the wardrobe where he began putting his hands in the pockets of the clothes he found there.

“About a week's worth of clothes,” Becker judged. “We can check with the receptionist when we head back down.”

Jenny nodded. “These maps all have our anomaly site circled,” she said. “And tomorrow's date.”

She looked over at Becker who was looking over at her with a curious look of resignation.

“At least Cutter was only a day out,” Becker observed dryly.

Jenny moved from the desk to the bag she could see half-poking out from underneath the bed. “There are weapons here,” she told Becker. He came over immediately and started to go through them. Jenny looked for anything else of interest in the bag, but there only seemed to be more weapons.

“Looks like a bloody arsenal,” Becker said. “What's he planning on doing? Start a war?”

He made the guns safe, and closed up the bag, hefting it easily onto his shoulder.

“I'm not leaving these here for him, or anyone else, to get hold of,” he responded to Jenny's curious gaze.

“No, no of course not.”

She started opening drawers, trying to give herself a moment to think. There was nothing in either bedside table other than the usual Bible and hotel headed paper.

“Are we going to tell Cutter?” Becker asked her.

Jenny hesitated. Her instincts were saying no, that nothing good could come of this. That they didn't have enough data to work from. But if she were in his shoes, would she want this to be kept from her?

“We don't know anything,” Becker said. “I can have my men keep an eye out for him. Danny probably knows some people we can ask to get access to local CCTV, see if we can track him. No need for Cutter to hear anything about it.”

“He's the team leader,” Jenny said, without much enthusiasm.

“And I'm the one responsible for the team's safety. If this Stephen, or whoever he is, poses a threat...”

“Stephen would never hurt the team.”

Becker raised an eyebrow. “These guns suggest otherwise.”

“We don’t know what those guns mean.”

Jenny pursed her lips, trying to keep her emotions in check. She suspected Becker would only respond to logical arguments.

“He could just as easily be armed to protect himself against a creature incursion. Or maybe he knows that an attack is imminent. Through the anomaly Cutter and Sarah detected.”

“Then why hasn't he tried to warn us about it?”

Jenny had been trying to think up some valid reason for that, but so far she'd come up blank. And before she could even attempt to think up something, there was a sound by the door; someone was trying to get in the room.

Becker waved Jenny back into the room, dropped the bag of weapons and drew his gun. Jenny held her breath, but after a few more seconds of the person outside fumbling with the lock, they apparently went away. Becker motioned for Jenny to stay where she was and opened the door, peering outside. Jenny heard the fire door at the end of the corridor clank shut.

“Stay here,” Becker told her, and vanished out of the door before she could tell him not to.

Jenny looked around the room, trying to plan her next move. If she followed Becker she'd only get in his way, if not worse. But she really didn't think that there was any more to be found where she was. She was just about to leave and go back to her own room, when the window opened and Stephen slipped inside from the balcony.

Jenny's hands automatically twitched, reaching for a gun that she didn't have. She hadn't lied when she'd told Becker that she didn’t think that Stephen would hurt her. She just wasn't 100% sure that this was their Stephen.

Stephen raised his hands, palms out, as if calming a raging dinosaur. “I'm not going to hurt you. I promise.”

“How are you not dead?” Jenny asked, slowly edging towards the bed and the discarded weaponry.

“It's a long story,” Stephen said.

“Start talking.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Fifteen Months Earlier**

Stephen wasn't afraid of dying. Not today. 

It wasn't as if he'd thought about it too much; even in his darkest moments suicide had never presented itself as a viable option. And facing down a Gorgonopsid or poisonous nightmare made the heart speed up, it didn't make him freeze and see his life flash before his eyes. After all, fortune favoured the brave. 

But just in case he made sure that if not as good as before, at least his relationship with Cutter was better than it had been. He remembered to include Abby and Connor in his goodbye, and then he waited. 

He hoped – hell, he even prayed – that Cutter would look away soon. He needed to believe that Stephen died. If any of the team ever had a chance to move on, his death had to be beyond question. 

As the creatures stalked towards him though, he began to focus a little more on the immediacy of his plan. He slowly moved his wrist so he could check the time. By his reckoning he still had at least 30 seconds to go. 

The first creature – he thought it was the sabretooth, but couldn't be sure as it moved away quickly – swiped at his leg and he gasped out in pain. He could see that Cutter was still watching him so, against his better instincts, he dropped and rolled to the ground. He tried to keep out of the creatures way as they started to fight over him and when he looked up again, Cutter's face was gone from the window. 

Five seconds to go. 

He'd been prepared to trust Helen. To take her word for so many things. But when given the chance, that hadn't meant he'd skipped the opportunity to read as much of her precious notebook as he could. 

Of course, it wasn’t until Helen's lies blew up in all their faces that he remembered about that day's anomaly and before he had the chance to tell Cutter about it, he found himself locking himself into a room with a bunch of creatures and hoping that his hunch on the anomaly's location was right. 

He slipped on some blood from somewhere, thankfully not his own – he wasn't bleeding that heavily - and began to scramble out of the way as the creatures circled around and tore at each other, ignoring him for the moment. That's what he wanted, the distraction of blood and in-fighting giving him time. Time that was running out. And if he was wrong, if _Helen_ was wrong...

He felt it before he saw it, the pull on his belt buckle that indicated an anomaly was there. He twisted around and without looking back towards the animals or where he'd last seen Cutter, he ran straight through the anomaly. 

* * * * * 

“Where did it go to?” Jenny asked, breaking into the spell Stephen was weaving around her. She had had no idea what a good tale he could tell, if he set his mind to it. 

“I'm not quite sure,” Stephen said, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck. Then he moved to sit down next to Jenny on the bed. “Wherever it was, it was bloody freezing.”

Jenny couldn't help smile at Stephen's outraged expression. “Helen didn't mention that in her notes?”

“No,” Stephen smiled. “She probably didn't ever expect to go there. She never seemed exactly dressed for cold weather, did she?”

“That's putting it mildly," Jenny agreed. “So, what happened next?” Despite herself, she was getting very caught up in Stephen's story. 

* * * * * 

“I'd only thought to memorise the first three sets of coordinates – not sure if I could have remembered more anyway. I'd really wanted to make my own copy of Helen's notebook but what with one thing and another I never managed it. I did get hold of it eventually, but that's a story for another time.” 

He looked apologetic and Jenny wondered how much more to this story there was – just how long had he been travelling in the past anyway?

“Anyway, I knew that there should have been another anomaly open at the same time, but at a distance that was now looking impossible to cross in the cold. I was in real danger of freezing to death.”

Stephen paused and looked off into the distance. “Which is when I felt the familiar press of a gun to my back,” he continued. 

Jenny gasped. “Helen?”

“No.” Stephen shook his head. “They were a group of travellers, like us, but from different eras, all bandied together. I called them the Time Tribe, though not to their faces.”

“They helped you?”

“One of them, Emily, she had a spare cloak, made from a woolly mammoth. She gave it to me in return for some tracking advice.”

“How long have they been travelling through time?” Jenny asked. She couldn't imagine what that must be like, the dangers they must be facing every day. 

“Years, some of them,” Stephen said, sadly. “I – I did ask them to come with me but...one of them, I don't think he liked me very much. Wanted me gone. So, I headed towards where I believed the anomaly would open.”

Jenny shook her head. “Lester is just going to love this.”

“And Cutter,” Stephen added. He looked a little forlornly at Jenny, before ploughing on. “Anyway I'll skip over the boring details, but I made it to the anomaly and stepped through.”

“Where did it go?” Jenny leaned forward, completely caught up in the tale. So completely in fact that she didn't hear the door open, nor the sound of a gun being made ready to fire. 

“Excellent question.”

Jenny jumped and looked over at Becker, who was pointing a gun right at Stephen's head. Stephen seemed completely unconcerned and slowly raised his arms. “Are you going to arrest me, Captain?”

“There was enough weaponry in this room to launch a small war,” Becker replied, equally calmly. “Is that your plan?”

“You think I came back to kill people? Have you actually read my file? Military intelligence at its finest.”

Becker practically growled and Jenny stood up from where she had been sitting, paralysed by indecision. 

“No one is accusing you of anything,” she said. And then, with an exhalation of air, she stood between Stephen and Becker's gun. 

“ _Jenny,”_ Becker sighed, not sounding particularly surprised. 

“I stole the weapons, from Helen's clones.”

“Her what?”

“When I got through the cold anomaly I found myself in a warehouse. I managed to get hidden before anyone spotted me. At first I thought it was gun runners, maybe IRA. I couldn't see anything that would give me an idea about the date. And then I saw Helen. She was surrounded by clones, giving them instructions. She's planning on using tomorrow's anomaly to launch an all out attack on the ARC.”

Jenny felt like a bucket of ice water had been tipped over her head. 

“She has to be insane.”

“Yes,” Stephen said. “I rather think she is.”

“I'm bringing you in,” Becker said. 

Stephen smiled sadly. “No, you're not.”

Jenny had barely blinked before Stephen had grabbed her and was dragging her towards the balcony, gun pressed to her head. It was only the absolute certainty that Stephen meant her no harm that stopped her from struggling. Becker seemed far less sanguine. 

“Don't take another step,” Becker growled. 

“It's my fault,” Stephen said. “I have to fix this.”

“Not alone you don't,” Jenny said. “We can...”

But before she could react further Stephen had pulled her, none too gently, onto the balcony, pushed her towards Becker as he came rushing out, and disappeared over the railing. 

Becker leaned over, gun still drawn, but judging by the swearing Stephen had managed to slip away into the shadows. 

“Giving Spider-Man a run for his money,” he muttered to Jenny. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine. He wouldn't have hurt me.”

Becker's face was a picture of incredulity, but he wisely remained silent. 

Jenny moved into the hotel room and looked around. “So, are you going to tell Cutter, or am I?”

“Oh don't worry,” Becker said, “that's definitely going to be you.”

**Tuesday, 10pm**

Cutter was a lot less vocal than Jenny had been expecting. In fact he just sort of, deflated, when she told him about Stephen and Helen's plan. She'd known he was running on empty for months but she didn't think any of them had truly realised the extent to which Stephen's death had shaken him to the core. 

Lester on the other hand was exactly as vocal as Jenny had expected, not needing to be put on speaker phone for everyone to hear him quite clearly. He told them they'd have support from more soldiers and the Security Services within the hour. None of them had raised any objections. Jenny had always felt slightly out of her depth on the Project, fearing that all they did was put out minor fires while the inferno still raged, but she felt it even more keenly now. 

“What did he say he was going to do?” Cutter asked. They were the first words he'd spoken in at least half an hour. 

Jenny went to sit next to him. They were holed up in the hotel's business centre, with all of their equipment laid out over the conference table.

“He didn't tell us. I'm sorry.”

Cutter absently patted at her hand. “You're not to blame for any of this.”

“Neither are you,” Abby piped up. “This is all on Helen.”

“I'll liaise with the others when they get here,” Becker said. “Why don't we get you settled in for the night and you can head back early in the morning.”

In any other circumstances Jenny might have laughed at the look on Abby's face. 

“We're not going anywhere.”

Becker's whole body twitched. “ _Abby._ ”

“Don't `Abby' me. We're not going to leave Stephen to face this alone. Not again. We can help.”

“Helen Cutter has lost her mind, if she ever had it all together in the first place. And while I might let you get on with...”

“Let me?” Abby interrupted. “What exactly do you _let me_ get away with, _Captain?”_

Jenny's head began to throb.

“You're an animal expert. This is way out of your remit.”

“Shut up! Both of you!” Cutter snapped. “We're staying.” He stood up and glared at Becker. “You're right, this is out of our remit, but the anomalies aren't. If something comes through other than Helen and her goons, then the so-called Security Services aren't going to be able to cope. We will. We stay.”

He started to walk away, shoulders hunched as if braced for a parting short. Becker turned to Jenny for support, but she shook her head and he sighed, loudly. 

“When this goes wrong I don't want to hear any complaints.”

“Good luck with that,” Connor muttered under his breath. 

Jenny glared at him as she hurried after Cutter. She found him already propping up the bar, a dark amber liquid in his glass. 

“Is now the time to start the heavy drinking?”

“Is now the time to start the abstinence talk?” Cutter replied. 

Jenny sat down next to him and neatly took the drink from his hand. She took a sip and grimaced. 

“Strong,” she said around a cough. 

Cutter half smiled. “Takes a bit of getting used to.”

“That's not the only thing,” Jenny whispered.

Cutter nodded, eyes staring down at the patterns on the wooden bar as he spoke. “How can he be alive? One moment he was gone and the next...How can I ever look him in the eye again? If it wasn't for me...”

“No, Nick,” Jenny tried to interrupt. 

“It _is_ my fault. I've accepted that.” He turned in his chair and Jenny could see unshed tears in his eyes. “I need to make this right.”

They were interrupted by a commotion at the front door. Without even turning around Jenny was certain it was the arrival of their back-up causing all the fuss.

“Subtlety is key,” Cutter told her, in a high-pitched voice, echoing a speech Lester had given them not long ago. 

She snorted a rather inelegant laugh. “Don't forget, first impressions count and being seen to be acting is as effective as actually acting.”

Cutter grinned and held out his arm to her. “Fancy doing some actual work?”

“Love to,” she replied. 

And if that sinking feeling was still bothering her, the only possible course of action was to completely ignore it.

* * * * *

Major Coleman was the sort of man who made grown men weep and ate children for breakfast. 

At least, that was Connor's assessment after they'd sat in on Becker's debrief. Jenny had to agree that he was a formidable looking man, with a gruff no-nonsense approach that she rather liked. She just had the feeling he was not going to be taking sides, and they could really do with a bit of that right now. 

“This has all got a bit...” Sarah trailed off. Jenny, whose mind had been elsewhere, nearly jumped out of her skin; she'd forgotten all about Sarah who seemed to have allowed herself to fade into the background. Jenny decided not to look too closely into the fact that jumpiness was starting to feel like her natural state.

“Sorry, sorry,” Sarah said with a smile, “I didn't mean to startle you. Much.”

“It's been a strange night.”

“The Major and his team are leaving for Sherwood Forest. Becker wants us to stay here but...”

“...but Cutter wants us to go too?” Jenny looked over to where Abby, Danny and Connor were deep in conversation. She didn’t know what they were saying, but she imagined if she did she wouldn’t like it. 

“I think we should go,” Sarah said. Jenny failed to keep the surprise off her face. 

“You do?”

“I might not have known Stephen, but I've seen the impact his death has had on the team. And if I needed help, I'd want the team to be there for me.”

Jenny squeezed Sarah's arm. “Tell everyone to be ready to go in 10 minutes. I'll deal with Becker.”

* * * * * *

She found Becker outside the front door, examining the flower pots. 

“What are you doing?”

Becker gave a look as if to say “isn't it obvious” before he carried on, moving pots aside, and kneeling down to examine muddy tracks. 

“I don't think Stephen's hiding in the shrubbery.”

Becker took out his phone and snapped a quick picture of what he'd found.

“I'm collecting evidence. Just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“Future prosecution.”

Jenny gawped at him. “Have you lost your mind now too?”

“Has it not occurred to you that Stephen could be working with Helen? That getting us all to go to the anomaly site could be part of her plan?”

“Of course Stephen isn't working with Helen. That's absurd.”

“As absurd as him keeping their affair quiet for years? Of lying to his friend every day? Of dinosaurs roaming the streets?”

Jenny narrowed her eyes and stepped very deliberately into Becker's personal space. 

“Let me be very clear. Stephen is not the enemy. If you don't want to help us, then don't. But I won't be responsible for what happens if you try to hinder us.”

With that she turned on her heels and left him to it. She had a bag to pack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wednesday, 8am**

Jenny had never been to Sherwood Forest before. Somehow she was expecting something more impressive than what she actually got. It certainly didn't seem as big as she'd always imagined, but then perhaps _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_ had a lot to answer for.

Major Coleman hadn’t been pleased when he'd realised the ARC team had no intention of being left behind but, to give the man credit, when he'd been presented with their determination he'd adjusted his plans to include them. Jenny couldn't help but think that Becker could learn a few things about adaptability from him. 

Coleman's men would take point, which Jenny was more than happy with, and the ARC team would be placed at a safe distance away, but still on site, should anything non-human come through the anomaly. 

They'd all managed to get some sleep, even if their car seats didn't make for the most comfortable of beds. And now they just had to wait. If Cutter and Sarah's predictions were right, they had less than an hour before, in Connor's words, “it really got interesting.”

Jenny yawned and opened the door as quietly as she could; she needed to stretch her legs and use the facilities – she was glad they'd parked near the Information Centre so they didn't have to worry about toileting in the woods themselves. 

Becker was waiting for her when she'd finished and didn't take long to get straight to the point. 

“What does Stephen know about explosives?”

“What?”

“Coleman's men have found some devices in the trees around the predicted anomaly. Stephen's handy work?”

“It must be,” Jenny agreed. At least she hoped so. “Any sign of him?”

“Not yet.” Becker stared off into the distance. “Coleman's called in some air support. We'll find him with thermal imaging cameras if nothing else.”

Jenny didn't like the sound of that but before she could get anything else out of Becker they were interrupted by Cutter and Sarah shouting at each other. 

“There's nothing wrong with my numbers!”

“If you'd just look at the computer simulation!” Sarah snapped, and it sounded like it wasn't for the first time. She had her laptop tightly gripped in her hand, even as she swung it around. 

“Cutter!” Jenny shouted, effectively silencing them both. “What is going on?”

Cutter glared at Sarah and then waved for her to go first. 

“I think our calculations were wrong...”

Cutter snorted and raised his eyes to the sky. 

“Carry on, Sarah,” Becker told her. 

“I've been running simulations from the matrix data, all night. And if Cutter had actually listened to what I was saying, he'd know I don't think we were wrong about the location of the anomaly, just the number.”

“The number?” Cutter repeated. He moved quickly to take Sarah's laptop away from her and to check her findings for himself. 

“I think there are two anomalies opening here this morning. Within minutes of each other.”

Jenny and Becker exchanged glum looks. 

“I'll let Coleman know,” Becker said. 

“There's something else,” Sarah said, before Becker could move off. “It was bothering me why Helen would chose here to come through and not an anomaly closer to London.”

“Nottingham's been used to launch attacks on London before now,” Becker said. “And if there's no other anomaly opening soon...”

“But there is,” Sarah interrupted. “One's due to open in Hyde Park in two days. Why not wait till then? What's so special about here?”

Becker's expression darkened. “It lends support to Stephen and Helen working in tandem.”

“Are you out of your bloody mind?” Cutter asked. 

“That doesn't make any sense,” Jenny said. Something in her tone caught the others' interest and they waited for her to finish her thought. “We didn't know Stephen was here. We came here because we wanted to test out the matrix, because this was the first anomaly to appear since you'd deciphered the matrix and why would we bother bringing any more armed back up with us than we usually do?”

“And she'd know that,” Sarah said. “She'd probably have the date memorised. All the important dates memorised.”

“Of course,” Jenny said, and then opened up her bag. In all the drama she'd forgotten that she'd grabbed Helen Cutter's diary from Stephen’s hotel room. She flicked through it, frowning at the scribbles and diagrams that littered every page until she found the relevant passage. And with it that sinking feeling she'd been carrying around with her for days come back in full force. 

“Jenny, lass, what is it?” Cutter asked. 

“She wanted us to do the work for her," Jenny explained. She turned to Sarah. “Is that the only electronic copy of the matrix data?”

“No. There's a backup at the ARC and Connor has a copy, I gave it to him earlier.”

“Security at the ARC's been stepped up,” Becker said. “Even with armed clones it would have been hard to attack...” He reached for his radio and started to run back to the predicted anomaly site, as he realised what Jenny had already worked out.

“What's so special about this site?” Jenny asked Sarah and Cutter. “It's where we are.”

They barely had a moment to register that they had unwittingly played directly into Helen’s hands, when gunshots rang out. 

* * * * *

Jenny stayed hunkered down next to one of their SUV's, wishing that she had a gun of her own. The clones had come through as predicted, and their first move had been to go after the ARC team. Abby and Connor had been their first target, but thankfully Becker had managed to get a warning to Danny just in time and he'd managed to hustle them to safety. 

Cutter had been grabbed by one of Coleman's men and could be heard loudly berating his wife's very existence in the background. Jenny had found herself trapped in No Man's Land and ducked down behind the car for safety. She didn't know where Sarah had got to. 

Becker suddenly appeared next to her, a slight flush to his cheeks the only indication that anything was amiss. 

“Are you hurt?” he demanded. 

“I'm fine. What about Sarah? Is she safe?”

“I'd hoped she was with you,” Becker admitted. “If Helen's after anyone it will be her.”

Jenny had been thinking along the same lines. “What about Stephen?”

“Still no sign. If he had some plan to take out the clones I'll be damned if I...”

The rest of Becker's sentence was drowned out by several large explosions overhead which seemed to rock the whole forest. Becker motioned for Jenny to stay where she was while he peered over the top of the car. 

“What the hell?” he muttered. 

Jenny stood up to have a look for herself. 

All but two of the clones were wrapped in some sort of net, but it didn't look like anything Jenny had ever seen before. It appeared to have been released on to them by the explosive charges and Coleman's men were having no problem in keeping them contained. 

“It's a bit of tech I liberated from the future,” Stephen explained, suddenly appearing behind them. 

“Have you seen Sarah?” Becker asked. 

“The new girl?” Stephen asked. “She was near the other car earlier.”

“Stay with Jenny,” Becker told Stephen, before hurrying off to find Sarah. 

“You are staying, aren't you?” Jenny asked. She had a feeling she already knew the answer. 

“I haven't found Helen yet.”

“She wanted us here,” Jenny said. She grabbed at Stephen's arm to stop him from moving away. “Cutter and Sarah have worked out how to predict the anomalies. Helen wants that technology. That's why she launched this attack. Because she knew we'd come here to investigate. Away from the ARC.”

“Where's Cutter?” he demanded. 

“Coleman's team moved him to the perimeter...”

Stephen took off in that direction. 

“I'll just stay here then, shall I?” Jenny muttered to herself. She looked around to where Major Coleman's men were leading Helen's handcuffed clones out of the clearing. She was about to join the Major and thank him for his help when she felt a familiar tug at the belt of her trousers. She looked around and easily found the source – the second anomaly. She'd all but forgotten about it, but she bet that was Helen's escape route. 

She tried to catch someone’s attention but they all seemed busy. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to have a quick look for herself, as long as she kept herself to the shadow of the trees. 

She'd been there less than a minute when Helen Cutter calmly stepped through the anomaly. It was all Jenny could do not to gasp in surprise. The second anomaly hadn't been for Helen to escape, it was how she was going to avoid any possible trouble. Now Jenny really wished she had a gun.

Helen looked to the left and right and then smiled. Jenny couldn’t see what had made Helen so happy from where she was crouched, but Sarah's unmistakable cry of surprise alerted Jenny to what was happening. 

Definitely recognising when she was out of her depth, she started to move away to get help.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” Helen said, and Jenny froze. “You haven't quite got Stephen's knack for camouflage, has she dear?”

Jenny slowly stood up. Stephen stepped out from behind a tree near her. 

Helen was holding a gun to Sarah, who was still clutching at her laptop as if her life depended on it. Jenny was rather worried that it did.

“You don't have to do this, Helen,” Stephen was saying. He took a step forward but Helen pulled Sarah closer to her and he stopped. 

“Sorry, Stephen, but you missed your chance to discuss my plans. Now Sarah, be a good dear and hand the laptop over.”

“I've already wiped the data from it. The laptop won't do you any good.”

“It won't matter if I take it then, will it?”

The next few minutes passed in a horrible blur. Sarah refused to give up her laptop, even though Stephen was urging her to, and then Helen's gun went off, and Sarah was on the ground.

Jenny ran to her, not caring for the moment what Helen was doing. She pressed her hands to Sarah's abdomen and called out for a medic as loud as she could. She stopped when she felt Helen's gun pressed against the back of her head. 

“See what happens to people that don't do as they're told?” Helen asked. “Stand up.”

“She'll bleed to death!” Jenny practically growled. Sarah was losing a lot of blood and Jenny didn’t like the glazed look in her eyes.

“Stephen can take care of that.”

Helen pulled up Jenny by the hair, leaving Stephen no choice but to move from where he'd been trying to sneak up on Helen and take off his fleece, pressing it into Sarah's side. Sarah moaned but her eyes fluttered shut. 

“Where’s the medic?” Stephen asked, a little desperately.

“I don't know,” Jenny said. 

“Come on,” Helen said. She started to pull Jenny closer to the anomaly. 

“I don't think so,” Jenny replied. She twisted, ignoring the pain as some of her hair was ripped out, and moved around enough to punch Helen in the face before she had a chance to use her gun. She would have punched her again only Major Coleman and his team were finally moving into the clearing, guns drawn. 

Helen barely glanced at them before she threw herself backwards through the anomaly. 

“Don't even think about it,” Jenny told Stephen. Stephen looked like he was about to argue, or just run after Helen anyway, but then he nodded and started to help the medic who was finally treating Sarah's gunshot wound. 

Jenny stared at her bloodied hands and slowly sank to her knees. At least that bad feeling she'd been carrying around with her had finally gone. 

* * * * * 

The official debrief was to be delayed until they all got back to the ARC. Sarah was in hospital but recovering well. Stephen and Cutter had barely left each other's sides. Major Coleman had spoken to Lester about a longer secondment to the team and the clones were being interrogated by the Security Services. It was an almost perfect conclusion, except that Helen Cutter had once again slipped from their grasp.

“You couldn't have done anything more to stop her,” Abby said.

They were seated in the hotel bar, both nursing a beer. Lester had given them the rest of the week off and Jenny definitely wasn't going to argue about that. 

“I can't believe she's still out there,” Jenny said. “What if this was our only chance to stop her?”

Abby took a sip of her drink. “At least we have Stephen back.”

Jenny smiled. “Yes, we do. I don't think I've ever seen Cutter smile so much.”

“See, every cloud,” Abby agreed. “Oh, look, the others are here.”

Jenny looked up to see the rest of the team coming into the bar. They looked tired, but strangely upbeat. Stephen looked like he was easily fitting back in and even Becker was practically smiling. So they hadn't got Helen. Sarah would be okay and they now had a greater appreciation for how important the matrix was going to be in the future. Predicting anomalies was going to save a lot of lives and the fact that it would also be the best way to track down Helen was just an added bonus. And Jenny was sure that neither Stephen nor Becker had lost sight of that, not if the way they moved away to a secluded corner was anything to go by. Good job she wasn't looking for a quiet life, she decided.

And then she went to join them. Helen had won her last battle. It was time for the ARC to win the war.


End file.
